Mary Riley

Online Piracy of Intellectual Property Rights -
The DMCA and proliferation of online video sharing websites has become a serious and significant problem for copyright owners large and small. Making it the responsibility of the copyright holders to locate, identify and remove infringing content on a global basis has become a joke. Now that YouTube is partnering with TiVo in bringing their offerings directly to TV sets, even traditional broadcast platforms are being compromised and impaired - where will this all end?

Unfair Trade Practices -
Current US programming import regulations (i.e., no regulations whatsoever) have caused grievous and irreparable harm to small and mid-sized independent production companies here in the US. How can a domestic producer of programming compete with production companies in Canada, the UK and Australia when said companies enjoy substantial (up to 50%) production subsidies provided by their respective governments? The BBC just announced that it is limiting the foreign import of programming by 20% in order to encourage, support and protect their domestic production companies! How nice for them.

Media Consolidation -
With more and more programming destinations falling under the control of fewer and fewer major media conglomerates, the options and opportunities for independent content owners and programming producers to secure distribution is becoming increasingly difficult.

When you factor this in with the aforementioned concerns the landscape for content owners and independent programming producers appears bleaker by the day.

These considerations have ripple effects throughout the entire industry, affecting all levels of talent involved in all aspects of production....